2016

Sunday, 30 October 2016

Sunday, 09 October 2016

After 5 years of ownership I have sold 1E34749. She looked fantastic for sale, is mechanically excellent and I'm confident that she will more than live up to her new owner's expectations.

But don't despair; there's always another project around the corner!

I'm in the process of preparing my 3.8 OTS for sale as well, and it will hopefully be on the market soon.

This will leave me with my silver series 1 coupe and my MGA.

I have about 700 miles on the engine in the silver car and it is fantastic. It has taken a lot of fiddling to get this car mechanically good but it's there now. Plant your right foot and it takes off like a scalded cat. And the noise....!

The MGA has around 350 miles on it's engine and is really nice to drive. It's a completely different driving experience of course, lots more revs and lots more gear changing. I'm toying with the idea of fitting a longer diff and a supercharger...maybe.

Friday, 01 July 2016

Saturday, 25 June 2016

You may recall the picture of the wear on the number 5 bore of my block. Here is a different view. Note the hone marks are present, indicating very little actual bore wear. When measured, while all the other bores were perfectly machined at 2 thou over piston size, this one was machined at 5 thou over. This isn't wear, this is a cock up by the engine machinist. Unfortunately the work was done in 2004 for the previous and now deceased owner, so the culprit will never be known.

A nice demonstration of hairline cracks between the bores. The crack demonstrated with UV light.

The extent of the crack shown after the block has been remachined to fit a top hat liner. Bizzarely, four of the six bores had been fitted with top hats already, although one was in bore number one with a normal liner next to it. This is where the crack above was.

All six bores now have interlocked top hats; no more cracks. This is what the last machinist should have done; maybe he forgot to finish the job properly after a hard night out.

The crank about to be installed. The bores were taken out to 30 thou oversize, and done properly this time.

Here's the completed short motor awaiting the head. The rebuilt gearbox can be seen behind.

Shim collection. Jealous anyone?

In other news, my original red series 1.5 is just about ready for sale, having been resprayed. It looks really nice and I'm just fettling a final few things.

In a fit of pique it broke down last weekend while on the way to the car wash, with a throttle shaft clip falling off resulting in no throttle.

Saturday, 07 May 2016

I never liked the gearbox in my Silver 4.2. The shift was loose and sloppy and it grinds when you push it into first. So when the clutch started to judder a bit in first, I decided to bite the bullet and rebuild the box and replace the clutch.

Rob, who I bought the car from had had it fully restored about 10 years ago, and since then it has covered about 12000miles.

The other thing that had annoyed me with the car was that it was always a bit tappety. Otherwise the engine is strong, and runs and pulls well. Of course the patented Jaguar undercar anti corrosion system is working well, it leaks oil from everywhere.

So...since the engine's out anyway we may as well do the head with new long skirt oversize buckets, as these were'nt available when the last rebuild was done.

And.. since the head's off, why not strip and rebuild the short motor with new rings and bearings and a maybe it will leak less.

Patented Churchill bonnet securing prop for better access. I think it is an old seat runner.